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Thursday, December 15, 2016

My Quiltcon 2017 Entry

As a lifetime Chicago Cubs fan, my euphoria of the Cubs winning the 2016 Major League Baseball World Series inspired The Wait Is Over quilt.This quilt was created on my long drive home from the Houston International Quilt Market on Tuesday, December 1. I sketched it out on graph paper while my wonderful husband drove us home. Then, I waited. I waited for the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series the following day, Wednesday, November 2, in the most dramatic game ever played in World Series history. The Wait Is Over is full of symbolism. It is designed with 108 windows to represent the 108 year drought of winning the World Series. The skyline are of actual buildings in Chicago. The large 'W' symbolizes the W flag flown at Wrigley Field after every Cubs victory. The red 'V' border symbolizes the red seams on a baseball. The machine quilting in the negative space symbolizes the movement of the bustling wind as Chicago is nicknamed the Windy City. 99% of the quilt was made from recycled dress shirts and dress pants from my husband, a die hard St. Louis Cardinals fan.It is machine pieced, machine quilted on a domestic machine, paper pieced, and improvisational pieced.Here's an image of my early sketch. Sorry, but it didn't scan in very well because it was drawn in pencil.

The next couple of days, I used Adobe Illustrator to formally draft the quilt while I prepped the fabric and determined measurements. Some more pictures of my drafting process:

Yesterday, I received an email saying it didn't make the show. O well, I'm going to love it anyways. I have the perfect spot for it. It will lay on my bed that I share with my husband, to remind him every day that the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series. They are the best team in baseball.

7 comments:

I've had quilts rejected and accepted into different shows. The only show I am aware of that provides jury feedback is Quilt Canada and they only do it because being on the jury is part of their certified judge training program. Entering a single quilt there costs several times more than QuiltCon (and that's after the required $50 or so membership fee.) They also get less than a third of the entries that QuiltCon does.

I don't think QuiltCon rejected any quilts because of issues with it being derivative. My quilt was caught up in that craziness last year. I got an email when the quilt was juried in that it was considered derivative and that I would need to obtain permission for it to be shown. I still got the email saying my quilt had been accepted.

QuiltCon accepts about 300-350 quilts.

Enter other shows! Other shows get far fewer entries than QuiltCon, especially their modern categories, so your chances are much better. Plus, the aesthetic of every show is different and sometimes the only thing that causes your quilt to not be accepted is that it didn't fit in with the other quilts that particular year. I've had quilts juried into one show that were rejected by another. I know people who have had a quilt rejected one year but accepted the next by the exact same show.

Thanks Jen for the comments. I appreciate it. It makes me happy knowing someone did read my post and care enough to comment. Though, sorry about the craziness last year. I did update the for to non profit about MQG, but I'm not sure about the number of quilts. I thought I heard on one of the podcast it was ~100 judged depending on venue. O, let me think about how to reword it, but thank you for letting me know.

Hi Sandra, I'm also a huge baseball fan, and I grew up in northern CA, so you probably won't be surprised to know I'm a SF Giants fan. Now, I did not just get on the bandwagon in recent years. My family went to games since I was a kid, and I saw the likes of Willie Mays, Willie McCover, and even saw Hank Aaron hit one of his many homeruns. But I have to tell you the Cubbies are my second favorite team. I've even seen a game in Wrigley Field, and after they beat my Giants, I rooted them on with all I had, and that Game 7 was amazing!!! I think your quilt is awesome. I really appreciate all the detail and love you put into it. 108 windows--that's one of those details that just warms my heart. Thanks so much for sharing. Take care, Mary.

Hi Sandra,I just wanted to tell you that I really love the quilt you made. Quilts that commemorate historic events are so cool and will always have a certain special-ness you don't see in your everyday quilt. I also want to correct you on one point, which is that the MQG has only existed as a formal organization since 2013. Before that the guilds were all individuals doing their own thing, with no one writing rules and definitions for them. Keep up the good work!

Meet Sandra

Hello. Welcome. My name is Sandra and this blog is all about my journey as I break into the quilting industry. Intermittently, I write about my adventurers as a wife and mother, and other random tidbits. Get comfy. Say hello. I look forward to getting to know you!

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